


Your World

by MorriganFearn



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 01:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3190730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorriganFearn/pseuds/MorriganFearn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feferi wanted to go on an adventure in SGRUB. When she actually met Aradia face to face, though, she found her priorities shifting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AradialSymmetry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AradialSymmetry/gifts).



> Combining prompts for Aradiabot introspection and Feferi and Aradia developing a relationship, I went for a little introspection on Aradia through Feferi's filtered view of her as Feferi ignores her own issues with freedom and fearless taste for adventure and Getting Things Done.

Feferi liked the crackle and hiss of the gates between worlds. The sound signaled achievement. She had seen one world and was ready to move onto another. Karkat had dropped the knowledge in the middle of one of his many rants about the sick nature of the game worlds that sound design was a integral part of rewarding a player or punishing them, so, since this was all a game—and thanks for that Sollux and Aradia, we all have really enjoyed this jaunt through personal hellscape post-apocalyptic torture session you both organized for us as much as anyone would enjoy personalized Imperial drone strikes—it was only to be expected that some of the sounds would be pleasing.

Feferi honestly just liked the noise. Whether intentional design on the part of some ineffible entity or entities, who programmed the end of one world and the creation of twelve more for questing purposes, or the random happenstance of science, the hiss told Feferi that new adventures and horizons awaited. Time for the witch of life to grasp all the new aspects of life to her chest and revel in them.

The new horizons of this world were spires of shapely crystal reflecting the soft pink of the sky and bending it into rainbows. It was blinding and gorgeous. Even the ogre Feferi glimpsed on a distant hill couldn't detract from the view. So, what was her quest in this land? Or, rather, whose quest could she help with?

She had hoped that the most recent gate would deposit her into the Land of Little Cubes and Tea, because Nepeta and Equius had been having such fun but it seemed had run into a stumbling block recently in the form of some puzzling teapots. Obviously she had misjudged the destination of the gate in the pulsing lights of the Land of Tents and Mirth, so where was she? Not Sollux's planet, and she didn't think that this was Karkat's, which everyone aside from Gamzee and Terezi agreed was disturbingly odd—Feferi didn't think that she could imagine blood of viscous scarlet—and this definitely wasn't Eridan's, and probably not Kanaya's due to the lack of what Sollux had affectionately termed deadly sky lasers.

Well, standing here and wondering was not going to get anywhere! Feferi ran to the nearest whorled spike jutting from the ground, admiring the change in light on the surface as her perspective shifted. Maybe there would be a clue as to the adventure there. Ooh! Maybe you had to look at the reflections in the crystals and discover your path? Though the path through the quartz forest, despite seeming to be wide open at first, was actually looking fairly unidirectional, as Feferi judged the distance between the spires, noting all of the places a spike would put an unwary traveler in a quandry. Yes, you could squeeze through wherever you wanted, but eventually you would have to stop or be skewered. There was only one area that was clear enough that it would give you unhindered passage, and though it wound a bit, it did seem to be a actual path between the towering rocks.

Given no other choice, and seeing no visions in the reflections, Feferi took the path offered. Unlike her own land, the temperature was cool and the sun appeared to be stuck in permanent sunrise, or maybe it was a gentle sunset. At least it wasn't burning everything. The whole place was very pretty, and entirely peaceful, a soft hum rising through the air, and, now that Feferi was on the path, no sign even of enemies.

She might have walked for half a hour or half a sweep, but the landscape, though ever shifting in shape and color remained the same glass vista and the path wound dangerously through the crystals. Feferi pressed on, determined to find something. If nothing else, she would get to see the hive of one of her friends and that should be interesting. It might be Equius's world, and since he was with Nepeta that would explain why there was no one here now.

At some point the reflections across the myriad surfaces began to warp to Feferi's imaginings of various hives, showing her an imagined palace here, or a false cove of pearls there. But each time she thought she saw something it turned out to be more reflections and distortions. She grit her teeth against frustration as the imagined towers became a shadow of three spikes intersecting. This place was as sad as her own land, just nothingness and the constant hum on the edge of hearing.

And the hum shattered at that last thought, showering into tinkling patters and crashes that shocked Feferi so much that it took her a full ten seconds to realize something or someone had to have broken one of these interminable spires to make that noise. She sped up, following the smashing sounds of crystal. Feferi didn't care if it was an imp that had prototyped into the scary spider features, she would hug and kiss it for being something that wasn't this endless forest of _rocks_.

Just ahead of her one of those rocks, reaching higher into the air than her old hive, split in two sheer halves, and fell away, revealing a shower of grist, and a very shiny robot, who was lifting a struggling imp in the air. Servos ground and hissed as the mechanical fingers squeezed, then the imp exploded into more grist, and the arm fell once more to the robot's side.

Feferi slowed her run, waving to attract the robot's attention. “Hello? Are you apocalypseArisen, wait, no, I mean, Aradia? It's me, Feferi.”

Red eyes turned to her, tracking the trolls progress. The mouth could move, at least, Feferi noted, and the eyes had delicate lids that could blink. Wow, this was really impressive. Sollux had sounded so bitter when he described what he had seen of his friend when he had bounced over to the Land of Little Cubes and Tea, but Feferi thought that Equius had done a really good job. Unexpectedly good, actually. There were so many details of real life in this creation.

“I have been using the name apocalypseArisen on the chat, and my shell was, ribbit, inhabited by my own prototyped ghost, so, yes, I suppose that all fits,” despite the odd ribbit even the voice was nearly troll, rather than synthesized. Really, this was quite cool. “You are Feferi? Ribbit. Ribbit. I remember you.”

“We haven't met before, have we? I'm shore I would have remembered!” Feferi didn't think that she had met a neat robot like this. Heck, she hadn't ever met a robot which, one, wasn't a doomsday device, and, two, hadn't immediately blown up, much to Eridan's ire.

“I had to go to a different, ribbit, timeline on one of my first quests. You ascended to godtier early and everyone was very excited,” Aradia didn't sound too excited, but Feferi's eyes widened in enthusiasm.

“So, you go through time? That's really cool! And you already know how to use it? Terezi said that she was getting the hang of her cool mind powers, and I think a few others have figured theirs out. Gamzee says he's got a miraculous hero mode, but I don't think he knows exactly what he's talking about. Still, it's really awesome that you've got your title powers active already. And time, I mean that must be a whale of a deal.”

The robot blinked. “It has many traps and pitfalls, knowing what the inevitable is to be.”

Hmm. Well, that didn't sound encouraging, actually. Or all that happy. But, still, “At leech you know. Back on my world all the consorts are saying is that the Witch of Life is me. But,” Feferi hesitated, “I don't know what a witch is, or even what life is. I feel as though I'm letting everyone down. Yes, they're silly little animals that this game has created, but they have such hope in us, don't you sea?”

The robot shrugged. “You will figure it out, ribbit, eventually. Though,” she stared thoughtfully at a nearby chunk of quartz, “probably not when you want to.”

“Er, thanks for that,” Feferi rocked back and forth on her feet for a moment. She wished that she had known Aradia before now. Really known her, not just read abandoned chats where she made terrible puns that had Sollux both groaning and laughing. Feferi had spent too much of her life tending to the bigger picture, and yet not getting to know any of the smaller picture. Well, now she was free to do as she wanted, and what she wanted to do was help. “Say, is there any quest on this planet that you need kelp with? You don't need to be proud, I'm looking for some new adventures!”

“No.”

Feferi frowned. Were all of Aradia's quests that easy? Everyone else she had met had needed partnered help with something. “Reely? I can help you know, even if all you need is advice. Two heads are better than one!”

The robot turned her head slowly, inspecting Feferi with a measured gaze. “I remember that joke. Maybe—”

Another robot, rusty and dented, zapped into the grist clearing. “Te-Te-Tell K-K-K-Karkat. K-K-Kan. Kan. Kanaya needs his he-h-help. Ribbit.”

Aradia nodded, making a shooing motion with her hands. The older robot winked out again. “I've been coming back from that timeline quite a lot. I think it's broken. Oh well. I've got to go tell Karkat. Ribbit. Do you know where he is?”

“He was in the Land of Tents and Mirth when I came here. But. Well, he's found this chess man who is a bit of a killer whale,” Feferi replied cautiously. “How much do you like getting stabbed?”

“Not much, even if, ribbit, I am metal and extra STRONG. Sorry. I suppose I can contact him on Trollian again. See you,” the robot grinned for a moment, the movement so fast that Feferi thought she had imagined it, “later.”

“Sea you,” Feferi began and then smiled. “Oh! That was a time pun, wasn't it?”

“Yes.”

But as Aradia turned to go, Feferi realized something. “Wait! Don't go! This land is so, so pretty, but reely bleak. I don't want to spend another who knows how long waiting around for someone else to swim along. The only gate I know of is the one back to LOTAM, which brings back the stabbing problem.”

“Is it really a problem?”

“Well, not for me, technically. I just fork him right back! Buuuut Karkat didn't like that, and he's right. Friends shouldn't fight. And I think I might have scared little clownfish Gamzee. I've got to defend myshellf, but, not so vigorously, and, well, I like to have control over my reactions, so, anyway, I'm here. Maybe—could I explore around your hive or something, while you play time shenanigans? Your lusus sprite is sure to—oh. Wait. Sorry. I should have realized.”

“Ribbit. It is fine.”

Feferi narrowed her eyes. She knew when someone was not telling the whole truth. She'd been enough of a liar herself on the basis of sparing other people's feelings. “Are you shore?”

Aradia's articulated finger joints curled, clenching into fists. “You may see my—my adventuring spot. There is vegetation, and a few interesting digs to look at. I have to go back anyway, as my conveniently portable yet baffling computing artifact is at the hive. Due to a thoughtless oversight, my syladex isn't working.”

“Wonderful! Not that your syladex isn't working, but thank you so much! For letting me see your home, obviously. I love looking at other people's hives,” Feferi trotted to keep up with Aradia, who had already begun to float along the path again. Wow. Aradia was psionic, too? And now that they were no longer boud to Alternia's traditions she could do so much with that. This game was turning out to be reely awesome! Still, it was a pity about Aradia's syladex. “How did your syladex get busted, might I ask?”

“I used a Oujia modus powered by the spirits of the recently dead. I should have thought far enough ahead to realize that once our planet was destroyed for a sufficiently long enough duration there would be no more spirits to guide me.”

“Oh. I am so sorry.”

“I am not. They are finally gone,” the hollowness in Aradia's voice didn't sound so hollow any more. But it sounded strange. Triumphant, perhaps? Or angry? “The only person who can control me now is me.”

A pause, and the robotic mouth flattened into a line of compressed emotion, “And time. Since there is only one path that we can take, despite the appearance of many paths.”

“Huh,” Feferi glanced at the path they were currently on. “Maybe this is why your planet is built like this! If you've got the ultimate riddle for awakening your guardian already, the whole—”

“My guardian will not be awakened. I have completed that task five times already, and each time I have had to return to the battlefield because the doom of the timeline was imminent.”

Uh. Hmm. Feferi was't quite sure what to make of that. She only knew from Terezi that guardians were sort of an optional final boss that could be unlocked by doing momentous things to the planet, but Sollux had said that it would be possible to cheese them out and get in early if you could find the right gate. Not that he was going to be so dumb as to skip ahead in a game that thought post-armaggedon was when the game really began.

“Okay,” she said at last, trying to make conversation. “I do want to play this game right, and I'm sure there are all sorts of puzzles and intermediate quests that have to be solved even if you're not going to fight the guardian. I mean we do have to unlock the gate to Skaia, and there's an awful lot going on Derse. Nepeta and I have been having such fun with the little chess people! They really need our help. I don't know where your dream bed is, but when you wake up you should see the problems that are being caused by the Black Queen's total attention on the war! People on Derse are starving, and the larger and stronger chess people get to do whatever they please, instead of using their powers for the good of helping the weaker ones! I'm pretty sure Karkat's friend is just another one of those bullies, but again, we're trying to get along. He's got some plan in the works—”

“Operation Regisurp,” Aradia nodded. “I know. The need for this plan to go into action so that the monstrous form of the Black King that we created through our prototyping could be hindered by a lack of support from his Queen was why the spirits told me to prototype the, ribbit.”

“Ribbit?”

“Indeed. Ribbit ribbit, in fact.”

Feferi found herself giggling, though she wasn't sure what the joke was exactly. The lights of Aradia's eyes had slid towards her, and the deadpan, nearly Kanaya-esque deliver was just funny. “Heehee. I'm so glad to have net you, Aradia! I hadn't really expected robots to crack jokes.”

“Robots do have feelings, you know. More so than the dead. Or maybe less so. It's definitely different from being alive.”

An idea began percolating in Feferi's think pan. “Aradia, you know how we have these secondary dream selves? I brought Sollux back to life by awakening his dream self. I suppose back to life isn't quite the right way to put it. Anyway! You've got to have an alive dream self on Derse just like the rest of the old blue team! If we could awaken your dream self maybe that would bring you back to life, somehow. It's a shoddy way to treat Equius' hard work on your robot body, which is really nice, but you'd like to be alive, wouldn't you?”

“Yes. My soulbot has many flaws. But it will not happen within our game session.”

“It most certainly will!” Feferi contested Aradia hotly. “When we get to your hive just let me go to sleep—”

“It will not happen because I have memos from myself at the end of our game telling me what to do, and Trollian identifies me as Aradiabot in those logs.”

“Well, Trollian might just be stuck with the same identifier that was used at the beginning of the game,” Feferi wasn't sure about this. She wasn't exactly knowledgeable about why electronic stuff worked in one way or another, or how it broke, but she thought it sounded good. She would wear down Aradia's resistance and save her, no matter how jaded and resigned to fate Aradia thought herself to be.

Aradia, however, favored Feferi with a glance that suggested being headstrong and determined was one of her more enduring qualities, even in death. It really was amazing how much emotion could be conveyed with subtle lowerings of the eyelids that the robot body was capable of.

“Nevertheless, ribbit, I know that you will not be able to do anything of the kind.”

“Not all prophesies come true, you know.”

“No. They all do. Just not all of them pertain to the alpha timeline.”

Urgh! She was so stubborn. Feferi wanted to pout, and she was not give to crossing her arms and sulking usually, but this brick wall of, of, of implacable fortitude couldn't be beaten, it seemed. It wasn't fair that Aradia was stuck like this, half way between death and in a life she had never lived.

“Nepeta never told me how frustrating you were,” Feferi mumbled.

“She probably never found me frustrating. It's this way,” the silvery arm gestured to a sharp turn in the path that opened onto a section of quartz that was only knee high and grew in curves and spirals. “This is what most of the planet looks like, just so you are aware,” Aradia nodded at some Tinkerbull faced giants with their imply underlings crouched on a nearby hill. They started back from her. “The forest we were in leads to the ultimate weapon of my planet, which I'm afraid I still haven't unlocked.”

“A weapon? Oh, that is interesting! I've been bopping around trying to solve the mystery of my planet, but none of the weapons I have found compare to Poseidon's Double Entente. I think I've got to join all of the dew in LODAG together somehow to awaken the true life of something before I get more quests.”

If Feferi had thought that this might draw Aradia into offering help with the massive problem that Feferi couldn't figure out how to solve, she was wrong. It did, however, draw Aradia out on the subject of practicalities. “Nepeta said that the dew on LODAG was quite big individually. As in the top of even the tallest hive that we have managed to create so far would have trouble breaching the full diameter of the spheres. Ribbit. Wouldn't joining all that water together mean that you would have to flood the planet?”

“Only somewhat, and I think all of my consorts can swim. It's figuring out how to do it that's hard. It all flows back to understanding the essence of Life, apparently, and I've been stuck on the puzzle for some time.”

“Maybe you should consult with Nepeta again. She managed to figure out how to make the City of Chords play the Choral Overture to make the day and night cycle begin here, which unlocked the Forest of Zero Time, where we just were.”

“Oh?” that sounded like an adventure and a half. “How did she manage that?”

“While dreaming on Derse, she and Equius discussed the predicaments of my world, and she managed to locate some hidden plans to the City of Chords after tricking some sort of dignitary, then she gave them to me through one of the gates on her planet once Equius reached her and gave her LOQAM's location. Ribbit. Everything comes back to how we move around in this session, doesn't it? I hope that Kanaya will gain whatever powers we need. However, ribbit, one other reason I doubt your erstwhile plan would work is that, according to Nepeta, the Dersites have a legend saying that their Maid of Time was dead before the session began.”

This time Feferi was unable to keep the scowl from her face. “That doesn't seem right. You should have the same chance as everyone else.”

“Maybe I did.”

They lapsed into silence between them for a while. There just didn't seem to be much for Feferi to say, and as they walked, the background hum grew into a gentle melody reminding Feferi of something, though she could not recall what.

After a while, though, the gnawing sensation that she had heard this song _somewhere_ before refused to leave Feferi. “Is that the Choral Overture? It sounds familiar.”

“It might. The City of Chords is a few fields away and the quartz vibrates.”

These were fields? Feferi had seen what landdwellers called fields on occasion, mostly gazing at roaming musclebeasts from the top of Gl'bgolyb's tentacles, and wondering if even one of those huge creations would be able to sate her lusus' hunger. On this planet, the fields seemed smaller.

Then they passed over a sparkling rise, and there rose a crumbling ruin of a hive, new staircases and levels ascending in rather gothic splendor toward a blue spinning gate. “Oh Aradia! It looks marvelous! Oooh! If I hadn't put away my trident I'd be whipping it around right ow. How cool. Look! There are vines over there! They don't look a thing like kelp. You must like it here.”

“I suppose I did.”

A lack of enthusiasm was not usually a barrier to Feferi's enjoyment, and she chattered right on, inspecting the hive, complimenting Aradia on the construction of the new additions despite a protest of 'server player,' and finally peering into the half collapsed holes in the small ring of earth that had been removed from Alternia along with the rest of the hive. Nearly out of sight, thanks to the rim of her goggles, she saw Aradia perk up a bit as they passed one of the holes.

Feferi decided to gamble on that. “And you dug out all this? Find anything?”

“Nothing here,” the robot admitted, before her flexible mouth curved upward. “I spent one afternoon arguing with Karkat about a tablet I found further away, though. It had a carving on it that I'm sure was graffiti from the Summoner's rebellion!”

“Really?”

“Karkat didn't agree. Said it was wriggler's tales for wrigglers and the Summoner was just a stupid story. But he's never wanted to do anything but serve the empire, so he's biased.”

He was. Aradia obviously had never wanted to go along with the status quo. Feferi remembered more than a sententious sentence scattered among the puns she had run across. In another timeline, Feferi would have grown up to change that status quo. Hopefully, Aradia's life span would have allowed her to see the changes.

Maybe, odd thought as it was, Aradia would have effected some changes herself. Feferi blinked around this realization, trying to process it.

Aradia interrupted, however, glancing at the weak sun rising over the sparkling land. “It's getting really late, and you're looking particularly tired. I will get this message to Karkat. And then work out what to do next.”

“Do you have a recuprecoon of some kind? My server player put mine halfway through the upstairs closet, and it the bottom cracked. But, I did come here for an adventure. Have you found anything else? On the planet, maybe? Ooh! I'd love to sea what we could dig up!”

Aradia looked at her once more and shook her head. “If you do not get sleep you'll be functioning as well as our supposedly fearless leader. That doesn't seem wise. Besides, maybe the answer for unlocking the Turntables of Time is on Derse as well.”

Feferi did see the sense in that. Besides, if she was on Derse, she could get to the bottom of Aradia's supposed dream death, and from there revive her. She had already brought back one friend, and there was no reason not to try it a second time.

The inside of Aradia's hive was possibly even more ruinous than the outside. SGRUB seemed to have that effect on hives, but it was also clear that neglect had played its role. Aradia waved a hand, and the recuprecoon that had broken through the banisters of the ascent treads flew to land on the bottom floor, sloshing gently. It was covered in dust, and looked as though it had been a sweep or more since it was last used.

“Robots don't often sleep, do they?” Feferi said, looking at the crust on the sopor hatch dubiously.

Aradia was already headed toward what had probably been the entertainment block, and a little gray and red device there. “I power down and do maintenance. Sleep somewhere else, if you like. I understand that horn piles make for napping arrangements as well.”

“I think you lost four twenty boonbucks on that piece of advice,” Feferi admitted.

“Well, that is the price of living,” again, one of those instantaneous smiles, over a metal shoulder. “And I never lost it because I never spent it. Not in this timeline, anyway.”

Feferi watched curiously as Aradia booted up possibly the most alien looking portable computing device known to troll. Apart from an occasional eyelid quirk and the noises of typing—Karkat must really be worked up about something, heehee—Aradia seemed to be a seated statue. Her hive blocks were all, all decaying, Feferi thought, as she wandered through them, looking for something less unpleasant than the recuprecoon. Yes. That was the right word. Decaying. The place knew that someone in the recent past had lived there, but now. Now. It wasn't lifeless, exactly. The emptiness was relieved with labeled artifacts, school feeding infodumps with interesting titles, and old plans for hive extensions.

Was this hive more Aradia, or was the planet in all of its hard reflective beauty the true reflection of the robot? Feferi's giggle had more than a minor quality of nerves about it. She wanted to fix this place. To fix everything. And she could, too! She could knock everything into shipshape!

With this last thought she fell asleep curled up on the stairs themselves. Not quite horn pile worthy, but close enough. She had new goals in mind and maybe a friend to help.


End file.
